Southern Colombia

First off, we've updated a lot of pictures, if you want to see them all, they include the Popayan, San Agustin, and Tatacoa Desert folders.

We're nearing the end of our tenure in Colombia. We've spent a good chunk of time lately in Popayan, a colonial town and a good hub for exploring Southwestern Colombia. There are a few fascinating natural and archaeological sites in the southwest, and we used Popayan as a convenient, pizza-selling, grocery-store-having, internet-accessible home-base for checking out the area.

Our first stop was a three day stay in San Agustin. Surrounded by incredible natural beauty, the most famous part of the area are the old statues that are scattered about the countryside. The statues range in size, but generally mark old tombs and are nearly 3000 years old. The culture that the tombs and statues belong to are a bit mysterious And not much about it are known, but the sites are beautiful and the tombs and statues are fascinating. Additionally, we took an outstanding Jeep tour through the countryside, seeing some of the more remote statue sites as well as two giant waterfalls and beautiful rock formations on the Rio Magdalena. We rode on top of the Jeep to enjoy the outstanding views and to work on our bumpy-road-ass endurance.


Our other stop was an awesome visit to the beautiful (and quirky) Tatacoa Desert. The desert is an environmental oddity, surrounded by the rest of hilly Colombia, but they get only two days of rain per year, and the area looks like a proper, if small, desert. A little slice of Arizona in Colombia.

We walked from the nearest town two hours down a long lonely desert highway as the sunset to arrive at our isolated cabana. We visited an observatory where we saw Jupiter and it's moons through telescopes, and we woke the next morning before sunrise to watch the colors emerge over the orange cracked Earth and cacti. We took a walk around the "Labyrinth," a group of orange sand formations, with a cute kitten in tow, and enjoyed the morning light and cool weather. One of the the best parts was the nearly complete isolation. We spend a lot of time in "touristy" areas, and sitting on the rocks listening to nothing but the wind in the desert was a welcome respite.

After the desert, with our final stop on the southwest tour out of commission with rumors of Colombian rebel activity (good times!), we took an amazingly awful 12 hour bus ride back to Popayan that included a completely-inexcusable 30 minute rest break just 30 minutes before getting into town. But we've recovered by sleeping late, watching movies, and fattening up on Popayan-ese pizza before we head soon to Ecuador.

One more stop to visit a giant cathedral sitting over a gorge near the border, then onward once again!